On December 12, the US Army and Navy successfully completed integrated testing of the Dark Eagle Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW).
“The responsiveness, maneuverability, and survivability of hypersonic weapons are unmatched by traditional precision strike weapons,” said Lt. Gen. Robert A. Rush, Director of Hypersonic Systems at the Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO).
The US Army plans to integrate its version of the system onto a mobile, land-based platform. The US Navy will integrate its version, called Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS), with the capability to be launched from surface ships and submarines.
Dark Eagle Characteristics
The Dark Eagle is an intermediate-range boost-glide system featuring a booster rocket that carries a hypersonic glide body (C-HGB, Common Hypersonic Glide Body) housed in its nose cone. Once the booster rocket reaches a predetermined altitude and velocity, the C-HGB separates from the booster and begins its glide phase, descending toward the target while trading altitude for speed and maneuvering at hypersonic velocities.
The missile is claimed to have a range of approximately 2,175 miles (3,500 km) and speeds exceeding Mach 5. In all likelihood, the missile can travel significantly faster than Mach 5, based on the calculations below.
The missile is reportedly capable of flying its maximum 3,500 km range in under 20 minutes while maneuvering unpredictably. If this claim is accurate, the missile must cruise at speeds far in excess of Mach 5. At Mach 5, at lower altitudes where the speed of sound is approximately 1,100–1,200 km/h, the Dark Eagle would take roughly 35–38 minutes to reach its target. Factoring in unpredictable maneuvering, the flight time would be even longer—possibly exceeding 40 minutes. In other words, to meet the reported timelines, the missile must be capable of sustained cruise speeds closer to Mach 10.
It is therefore highly likely that Mach 5 represents the terminal speed of the missile rather than its cruising speed.
Destructive Capabilities
The weight and dimensions of the missile remain classified. However, based on analysis of available photographic evidence, the missile’s weight is estimated to be between 15 and 16 tonnes, with a length of approximately 11–14 meters and a diameter of about 0.876 meters.
The extremely high impact speed of the warhead is possibly corroborated by reports indicating that the missile’s blast-fragmentation warhead contains a relatively small explosive charge—approximately 30 pounds (13.6 kg)—but incorporates a very large number of fragments.
In other words, the missile relies primarily on the dissipation of the immense kinetic energy of its C-HGB, distributed through a wide spread of high-velocity fragments, rather than on explosive yield alone.
These fragments can cover a large area, making the missile particularly suitable for destroying targets such as S-400 air defense systems, training camps, and command-and-control nodes.
Outstanding Features
The four most notable characteristics of the Dark Eagle are its very high cruising and terminal speeds, relatively compact size, high mobility, and the wide yet lethal dispersal pattern of its warhead.
Its high cruise speed, low flight altitude, and unpredictable maneuvering would severely compress detection and engagement windows, even for adversaries equipped with advanced missile defense systems such as the S-400 or S-500.
The relatively small size of the containerized missile—comparable to the Chinese DF-17 with a range of 1,500 km—combined with twin launch containers mounted on a semi-trailer, would make pre-launch detection and counter-battery engagement extremely challenging.
The wide fragmentation pattern of the warhead would help compensate for any navigational inaccuracies caused by electronic warfare (EW) over the target area or by constrained maneuvering at hypersonic speeds.
As is the case with the ATACMS system, it would eventually be possible to airlift the Dark Eagle launcher and support vehicle(s) to any point on the globe, program the system with target coordinates in flight, and promptly launch the missiles on landing.
Because the missile is not susceptible to easy interception by existing air defense systems, it is ideally suited for preemptive strikes against adversary air defense assets and command-and-control infrastructure.
Conclusion
Both Russia and China have developed surface-launched hypersonic weapons, but neither country has fielded a hypersonic weapon conceptually identical to the Dark Eagle.
Russia’s Oreshnik, for example, is also an intermediate-range ballistic missile capable of hypersonic speeds, but it is optimized to saturate adversary air defense systems using multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs). In contrast, the Dark Eagle prioritizes precision and kinetic impact, relying on its ability to penetrate air defenses rather than overwhelm them.
China’s DF-17 hypersonic missile was developed primarily for precision land-attack missions, such as degrading enemy air and missile defenses or striking fixed targets like US military bases in the Western Pacific. Like the Dark Eagle, it is designed to evade air defenses through hypersonic speed and maneuverability. However, its more limited range makes it a less versatile system.
Highlighting the Dark Eagle’s reach, an officer presenting the missile system to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth reportedly stated that its range would allow it to strike “mainland China from Guam, Moscow from London, and Tehran from Qatar.”
Conceptually, the conventionally armed Dark Eagle can be described as a weapon system designed to degrade an adversary’s deterrence capabilities—both conventional and nuclear. It is, fundamentally, a weapon intended to enable the US to fight and win wars under the protective umbrella of nuclear deterrence.
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